Federal Police may turn attention to Mal Brough

Jessica Grewal
Senior Reporter APN Newsdesk NSW Bureau
Working from Sydney, Jessica specialises in crime/court reporting, filing for APN’s regional mastheads in Northern NSW as well as providing national content for the group.
She was previously Chief Reporter at the Fraser Coast Chronicle in Hervey Bay, Queensland where she grew up and trained.
Early in her career, she was named Queensland Young Journalist of the Year at the Clarion Awards.
More recently, she was finalist at the 2013 Kennedy Awards for Excellence in NSW Journalism in both the...

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MAL Brough's alleged part in the sexual harassment scandal involving former parliamentary speaker Peter Slipper has been brought to the attention of Federal Police.

The former Howard Government minister, who will contest Mr Slipper's seat of Fisher, has been accused by Federal Labor of fuelling what a Sydney judge described as a "political conspiracy" to bring down the government.

The letter also calls for an investigation into the actions of former staffer James Ashby, who brought the sexual harassment case against Mr Slipper, his colleague Karen Doane and senior Liberal Party including Caloundra MP Mark McArdle and deputy leader Julie Bishop.

According to News.com the letter states "This conspiracy involved using a fabricated sexual harassment claim to politically damage and publicly humiliate Mr Slipper...The conspiracy was designed to inflict such significant reputational, psychological and emotional harm to Mr Slipper so as to cause him to resign...thus helping to topple the current government and install Tony Abbott".

In throwing the sexual harassment case out of court last month Justice Steven Rares said Mr Ashby and Ms Doane had used Mr Brough as a "channel" to leak diary entries to News Ltd journalist Steve Lewis.

He said "if Mr Ashby could discredit Mr Slipper politically by helping Mr Brough and using Mr Lewis, he perceived that would gain favour for him and Ms Doane in the eyes of the LNP".

Mr Ashby announced on Friday he would appeal the judgement and take the allegations to Fair Work Australia.